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Field CollectingLiepers quarry, Pa.

3rd Jul 2015 23:19 UTCGemmy Horse

I live very close to this collecting spot, but I'm so new to collecting, I'm not sure what to look for. I look for anything shiny, botroydal, terminated, different colors and whatever it says on mindat about the area.

I look near the stream, along big boulders, and always at my feet.

Where else can I look? I haven't found anything yet.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Thank you very much!

Frustrated Rockhound,

Gemmy Horse

4th Jul 2015 00:14 UTCBob Harman

DEAR FRUSTRATED, Sounds like you are trying without much success. To be perfectly honest, field collecting today, for many of us, is a shadow of what is was 50 or just 20 - 30 years ago. Much land is private, other lands are state and federal and off limits to collectors and most quarries no longer allow unrestricted collecting. In addition, an amazing number of sites are totally extinct, being covered by parking lots, malls and housing subdivisions etc. Even road side collecting at road cuts is now restricted, especially along the interstates. These changes frustrate all of us; after all collecting is really about preserving our mineral and fossil heritage.

As was mentioned in your other thread, your best bet is to join one or several local rock clubs. Most of them have organized field trips to known productive quarries and other nearby sites. In addition, being a newbie, they will teach you the "art" of field collecting, which quarries are productive of crystals, what to look for and how to successfully extract the crystal specimens from the surrounding rock.

That is my wisdom about successful field collecting and advice to you. For a starter, also go to the "Midwest Sedimentary Geode" thread on this website and see some of what still can be found, at least in Indiana. The pix and descriptions hopefully might lift your collecting spirits again!

GOOD LUCK and CHEERS…….BOB

4th Jul 2015 03:02 UTCWayne Corwin

Gemmy

Finding isn't about "looking" any more,, it's all been seen and picked up :-S

Now it's about Digging & busting rock & ledge ;-)

4th Jul 2015 16:09 UTCGemmy Horse

Thanks for the info!

I did find some pegmatite by just looking, but nobody wants to trade pegmatite.

And clinkers, lots of stupid clinkers.

I appreciate the help.

4th Jul 2015 16:48 UTCBob Harman

Are there pegmatites there? That is news to me! CHEERS……BOB

4th Jul 2015 20:00 UTCMark Heintzelman 🌟 Expert

There are actually 3 Leiper quarries, including his upper and lower Avondale quarries, all in Delaware Co. The original was started by Thomas Leiper back in 1780. Leiper pioneered a local "rail" road, and estimated in May of 1809 that it would cost $1,592 to survey and construct a rail line from his quarries to Philadelphia. The experimental track was originally a 180-foot-long stretch of four-foot gauge track laid with crossties spaced eight feet apart, near the Bull Head Tavern in Philadelphia. Eventually it was extended out to his Mill and Quarries in Delaware Co.

Good material was collectable from these Quarries during their operation, but you have to keep in mind how much rock product (to us, "overburden") was being removed on a daily basis back then. They wanted the solid dimensional stone and stone for aggregate, not the mineralized veins and pockets they came into, so those were often left somewhat exposed and easy to access.

No activity means you have left only what few veins may still be exposed along the walls. They've been inactive for quite some time (pre WWII I believe) so if there were any veins exposed, they were likely all worked out long ago too. No more overburden removed, meaning no more veins exposed. It's not surprising there would be little or nothing worth collecting in such old and unused quarries as these.

MRH

PS: If you are near these quarries, you should probably set you sites on the Smedley Park beryl locality (in Springfield Township), which has been collected from and providing decent finds more recently. I've not worked the locality myself, and am not aware of what permissions are required to enter the site, so check with your local Rock club for more info.

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